Two different animals
Alone, a locust is shy, green or brown, and avoids others. Crowded together, it changes colour and behaviour and joins a swarm.
The savanna · Grasshoppers, crickets, mantises and stick insects
Desert locust
Schistocerca gregaria
A large, yellow and sandy-brown grasshopper with speckled wings.
- Size
- 6 to 9cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Dry grassland and semi-desert from West Africa to India
Springs after you in long hops. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Desert locust
Good to know
Six things about the desert locust
A tickle starts it
The change is set off by other locusts brushing against its back legs.
Billions at a time
A big swarm can cover hundreds of square kilometres and hold tens of billions of insects.
Its own weight every day
Each locust eats about its own weight in plants a day. A swarm can strip a field in minutes.
Carried by the wind
Swarms fly with the wind and can cover more than a hundred kilometres in a day.
An ancient plague
Locust swarms are recorded in ancient Egyptian tombs and in the Bible.
The real thing
Photos of the desert locust
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Solitary locusts are hard to find: look for a large grasshopper flying a long way when disturbed. Swarms are impossible to miss.
How to help
Countries across Africa and Asia share warnings of where swarms are forming, so that they can be dealt with before they grow.
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